


Complicated

by M (thelonelywarrior)



Category: Doctor Who
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-09-28
Updated: 2015-09-30
Packaged: 2018-04-23 19:34:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 4,794
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4889404
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thelonelywarrior/pseuds/M
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>His life is full of Clara, with no trace of Missy. Until he fumbled into her life.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Another Doctor

The Doctor was having the best time of his life. In fact, he thought his life couldn’t be better. His relationship with Clara was getting closer each day, trusting and knowing each other better. They developed understanding and were comfortable with having all the adventures together. For once, The Doctor was not alone, and his joy of battling monsters could be shared. Clara wanted to teach still and he agreed to it, leaving him a certain personal time to loiter around, creating a somewhat balanced life...

But he was missing something. No matter where he ran, he felt something tingling in his hearts. He was not sure what was it though he put that at the back of his mind and get on with his life.

This time round he was going surprise Clara during one of her birthday party. Having a time machine could be quite a fun. Pulling the lever, The Doctor checked himself in front of the mirror in the TARDIS, making sure he was presentable.

The TARDIS jerked to a stop. “That was fast,” he thought. But he noticed what was wrong at a check on the TARDIS console.

“Come on, this is not Blackpool - this is bloody Glasgow!” The Doctor mumbled to the TARDIS. The console gave out a beep and went silence. “Brilliant,” The Doctor rolled his eyes while he pulled out the flooring to check on the connections beneath. Everything seemed in place.

Well, not like it’s the first time you’re bringing me off course. The Doctor gave the console a death stare, particularly anxious about missing Clara’s party when that was obviously not a concern when you have a time machine.

“Hell with it,” The Doctor sprang away from the railings which he leaned on moments earlier and headed towards the exit, “since I'm already here, I might as well go for some Scottish walk.”

Stepping outside, the greyish sky was not helping his mood at all, but he reckoned a few shops he visited in his previous days. After some time travelling on Earth, Earth had felt oddly homy sometimes. He skipped past a book shop, which he found out the TARDIS did not mess up the time but the location, it was the same day as when he intended to stop, judging by the newspaper date. He made a ‘hello!’ when a kid playing at the roadside waved at him. He had no idea when did he saw the kid, but he waved back anyway. He slowed down a bit near the pastry shop, smelling the fragrant bakes invading even at the outside of the shop. He was about to indulge himself with the aroma of coffee from the one next to it when he heard a familiar voice.

“One cup of coffee, and another, tea - with sugar, please!”

It was a voice so familiar but The Doctor could not remember where did he heard that from, but when he walked further towards the voice, he saw something far more peculiar.

Standing in front of the line, talking to the shopkeeper, a man clad in button down shirt, greyish blue jumper. He would have looked like any middle-aged man around him, but his hair was a fluff of silver, so distinct that The Doctor squinted as he could not make of what was in front of him.

Despite the attire difference, that man looked like a replica of himself. The Doctor would not have known but he knew that was the face he saw when he looked into the mirror earlier. However, this man had a certain different vibe compared to The Doctor.

Not knowing what was in hand, The Doctor decided to hid among the crowd and observed.

“Morning, Doctor Smith. Here they are, your usual!” The man smiled and received his order and walked out of the queue and down the street. The Doctor, several pace behind, shuffled silently.

The man picked up a newspaper from the aforementioned store and waved towards the aforementioned kid. “Hey, Charlie! How y’a doin’?”

“Good, Doctor Smith, good.” The kid bounced his ball around, “I saw you just now wearing something different.”

“Oh, is it?” Doctor Smith chuckled and waved before he continued his walk. He turned into an alley and reached the entrance of a terrace house. Taking out his keys from his pocket, he fumbled a bit and unlocked the door. Wham! He closed the door and that’s it.

The Doctor narrowed his eyes. It was not the first time he meet someone with a familiar face, but there was something fishy about all these. He found himself a small roof and waited as if he expected something interesting was coming his way. And sure enough, he was not disappointed.

After around two hours, the street started to become busy, though not as bad as London. People walking out of house to school, work and other human-y business. Same happened to the particular unit The Doctor set his eyes on.

Click! The door opened. Doctor Smith was out in working attire, his hair combed but his curls not hidden. Followed behind, was a lady in a dark violet turtle-neck.

“Missy!” The Doctor gasped to himself. At least, she bore the same feature as Missy, except her hair was let down with long curls, and her face seemed to softened. If The Doctor hadn't had the preconception, she would look like any happy lady in other house. She leaned forward and kissed Doctor Smith, who bent a little towards her. They waved goodbye and Doctor Smith went off, presumably to work. The lady then went back indoor.

The Doctor couldn't stop his own curiosity any more. He hopped off the roof and glided along the walkway to the front door. “Hello!” He called, banging the door.

“I know it’s Glasgow, but it’s still rude to bang on one’s door -” the lady’s voice was distinct from inside when she opened the door and paused right there.

“Missy!”

“Wrong door, honey,” she said and slammed back the door. But The Doctor was fast, “Hang on, it’s you!”

“Otherwise, you wouldn’t have reacted so quickly.”

“I repeat, wrong door,” Missy opened to reply and quickly close the door. The unguarded Doctor missed the second door-slamming competition and stood foolishly in front of the silent house.

“Fine, but what are you up to now?” The Doctor yelled through the door, “This is not funny, Missy. You can’t just turn people into me and torture them. Are you trying to destroy this city? Whatever it is, it is not a good idea. Can you hear me? Not a good idea!”

Missy did not respond.

The Doctor sat in front of the door, bidding his time until the door was open. He could have use the TARDIS to go straight towards evening time when Doctor Smith was back but he remembered she was not working. Sighing, he waited the evening. Oddly enough, Missy never set foot outside the house at all.

“Excuse me.”

The Doctor looked up. Doctor Smith was looking straight at him, back from work, he supposed. He did not look shocked or surprised, but calm.

“Listen,” The Doctor stood and explained, “this might look strange to you and I don’t know what wizardry had gotten into you. That lady in this house has bewitched you some non-human technology, to enslave you.”

“What?”

“You are not you! Look at me, that lady is obsessed with me - we had a long history, a complicated ones, and she’s mad. She could kill your entire species any time. Run, run while you can.”

“That’s my wife you’re talking about, Doctor.”

The Doctor looked at Doctor Smith as though his eyes could have pop out of his sockets, “You knew?”

“Yes, I'm aware of. I'm Smith, call me Smith.” Doctor Smith sighed with a smile, “She told me all about you, and I’m aware I might be a replacement, Doctor.”

“Then, why?”

“I love her and she loves me, as simple as that.”

“That’s not true. You see, she’s insane, she doesn't love you, she would kill you when she find it too boring one day. That’s not love, that’s possession!”

“Doctor,” Doctor Smith looked at him pathetically, “Speak for yourself. Missy had been there to be with you. She did things she wouldn't have done if it were for someone else, for you. And what have you done? You ignored her! You closed the door on her! You left her, thinking she would be okay when she’s vulnerable - for your so-called friends. Friends don’t ask you to be cruel or selfish to others, friends make you greater to others.”

“Do me a favour,” Doctor Smith breathed from his sudden raise of voice, “ When people are scared and vulnerable, they build walls. They put themselves inside tanks, to make them stronger, to protect themselves against other. Sometimes the most fragile being, was encased in the strongest shell. She may have looked strong and mad, but she - well, please, you had done enough damage to her. Please leave us. She is now very happy, without your intervention.”

Doctor smiled and pat The Doctor on the back and turned to enter the house.

The Doctor was left struck by the amount of speech he was given. _What have I done? What have I done? What have I done?_


	2. Behind Closed Door

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is a short one.
> 
> Missy's side.

She was numb, numb from half-squatting against the door for far too long.

Inside the house, Missy was leaning against the door.

There the door was, between The Doctor and her. Distance-wise, they were just one metre apart, but Missy knew they had drifted so many light years away from each other. Her hearts were heavy and she was trying really hard to ignore them while getting back her senses.

The day was totally ruined by The Doctor.

After escaping so many times, from difficult situations, Missy was finally too tired to bother with The Doctor’s leaving her stranded. It was true The Doctor had entrusted her to be resilient enough for any situation, but she was just too tired. Seeing that The Doctor had put up with most of her crackpot plans, Missy deemed that she had had enough of the toxic relationship and decided to step out of his life.

She was now very happy, having Doctor Smith. He was very loving and understanding, not shocked to hell when she was trusting enough to tell him her stories, and even gave her a shoulder to lean on. After chasing through universe, regenerations after regenerations, she had almost forgotten how good it felt like, to have someone like that to be with. Not just his appearance, Smith reminded her of the old days in Gallifrey. True that she would be with him only on Earth, but Smith compensated with travelling around the world. She never knew travelling through space but not time, could be so rewarding as well. In turn, Missy was satisfied with chucking her own TARDIS in the wardrobe and stayed permanently in Glasgow.

_Who would have known, Missy the Master, decided to spend her life in Glasgow?_

And that was before -

She sighed as she thought through all these. And she heard voices across the door.

She could hear them, the two man, with the same face, one with an extra heart - but not wide enough to include her as the one without.

She did not notice until the end, after Smith’s whole speech, that her face was warm, embarrassed of being the one hiding behind the door. _Now she was the one keep running…_

Alas, she heard the incoming footsteps, straightened up and into the study room.


	3. What's your plan?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Doctor almost gave up on Missy when he found something weird...

“It was ridiculous!” The Doctor was literally talking to himself as he watched across the street towards Missy’s house.

In fact, The Doctor was not very sane either.

Instead of his planned one-day pause at this wrong location, he did not return to the TARDIS after that day. He was not sitting in the room across the street. He had convinced the old lady to rent him a room that could allow him view of the opposite street. That lady was obviously a sit-at-home type since she did not recognize him as Doctor Smith. She, however, had heard of Missy Smith.

“Not sure if that’s her name or ...” the old lady murmured as she watched the TV.

He was pretty much left alone in his room, occasionally served with some afternoon tea but other than that, he was back to his new job, private detector of Missy. The work day always started routinely, with Smith waking to get the coffee and tea _(don’t they make their own drink at home?)_ , Smith went off to work, Missy sometimes went out for a walk (The Doctor note that down), Smith invited some friends over.

This was the fourth day, a Saturday, and The Doctor would have felt bored with the extremely routine life of humans. He thought of Clara, but something about this incident got him excited. There might be an adventure inside, to find what Missy was up to.

Smith and Missy came out of their residence early in the morning. Smith was holding Missy’s hand, eyes twinkling at her as they walk down the street. Missy looked all delighted.

The Doctor rolled his eyes out of disgust. _Missy, you’re attention-loving as ever._

He got his coat and skipped out of the house He was going to follow the pair. And he stopped right at his own door.

The door of Missy’s house opened.

Out of it, walked an old man and he turned into the other side of the street.

Before The Doctor could follow that man, the door opened.

This time a young man.

A third, a kid.

“Wait, I remember seeing that face somewhere. It was the kid who waved in the morning.” The Doctor thought. He frowned with puzzlement but rejoiced in excitement. His long wait was not in vain!

He hopped steadily over to the house and waited for the right moment to sneak into the house.

The house was ordinary, way too ordinary. Things were neat with a certain messiness, like a random household. He expected Missy to over-decorate her house, but this was way too low key. What are you, Missy?

He could not see any photos of Missy and Smith, but could spot the life of a couple. The Doctor felt something inside him. _We were friends. At least I should be informed about your new companion._ He saw identical cups lining the kitchen tabletop, matching slippers, two towels hanging outside the bathroom, a bed that could fit two human on top, or rather, Missy and Smith. _Focus, Doctor._

In the study room, however, The Doctor saw a difference. Most of the books were something The Doctor knew Missy would read. Running his fingers along the shelves, he felt like running into Missy’s privacy. This is the place, he thought, this is her hiding place.

_Yes, Doctor, welcome to my space._

The Doctor turned, but no one was there.

 _You’ve come, as I expected. I’m talking to you telepathically_.

_I thought you were out far._

_Yes and no. I’m out, yes; but you’re standing at the closest link to my mind, hence, no._

_What are you playing at, Missy. If need to, let’s just meet and talk this out. No one has to suffer._

There was a pause.

_Listen carefully._

Then it was all silence.

 _Missy! Missy!_ The Doctor screamed in his mind, trying to find back the connection. He was interrupted, however, by a bright light  emerging from the the adjacent room.

Instinctively, The Doctor went to have a look.

 


	4. Mistakes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What's in the house?

It was a store room.

Old things, new things, random things, piled up against the wall.

In the middle of the room, a vortex-like hole emerged, emitting bright light, which he saw previously.

The Doctor stood rooted to the ground, figuring out what was it that was presented to him.

_Missy, what’ve you done?_

Forms were seen climbing out of the cortex. From blinding light, The Doctor could see them assuming the shape of human, and gradually resembling one, into those replicas he saw walking out of the house.

_Replicas!_

_Smith was a replica!_

The Doctor was furious at what a mess Missy had ended up with. _She must have tried making replicas out of this and it didn’t work perfectly_ , thought The Doctor.

The Doctor was to run out of the house to stop the replicas from finding their originals when he was stopped by his own mirror image at the entrance.

“Hello, Doctor.”

The Doctor looked at him sympathetically and panted, “Smith, look, I’m sorry this happened to you. It could be a shock for you to realize you are not actually you. I mean, it is perfectly fine, and you might find it difficult to get any sense about it… because who you think you are, didn’t exist.”

“What do you mean?”

“You are created based on what Missy thought about me, Smith! You are not real! I am sorry if it hurts your feeling, but you are not you!”

“Of course I am me. The only question was, how to fully assimilate a Time Lord.” Doctor Smith spoke in a blank face.

Just at this moment, The Doctor heard a scream from the vortex.

Out of it, stepped the blue-eyed woman, with a face that followed The Doctor almost everywhere.

“Missy!” The Doctor’s eye widened.

“Ah, just in time,” Doctor Smith laughed. He dragged, behind him, another Missy. The Doctor supposed that was the Missy who left the house this morning, only she looked terrible.

Her face was pale and she was not herself.

“Missy!” The Doctor called. Missy looked at him with the most blank face she had ever gave him, no emotion, no expression, nothing. Her soul seemed to be gone and she was fading.

The New Missy let out a laugh, so lively that The Doctor thought she was the usual Missy. She walked to the other self and touched her. The pale Missy started to dissolve into thin air as the connection initiated…

“No!” The Doctor yelled, pushing the new Missy away, “What’re you doing? She’s your creator!”

“Creator?” Doctor Smith asked.

“She made a mistake, she did not intend to create all of you. She just need a person to be like me, because - “ The Doctor pushed the New Missy back into the vortex out of anger and dropped on his knees as he had Missy in his arms, fragile. “-because I was too blind, too selfish, too - too proud to admit a friend.”

“Missy, answer me,” The Doctor whispered, “stop these.”

Missy drew in a deep breath all of sudden and opened her eyes, though she had lost her usual vigour. Instead, she whispered to The Doctor’s ear, “Gallifreyan technology…”

The Doctor’s mind was working, connecting information. “Space-time fabric manipulation… time… space… time… space… what? What’s it Missy?”

“TARDIS,” Missy whispered.

“Enough!” Doctor Smith roared from the side, “Since you are here to stop me, I shall upgrade to full activation.” He looked into the vortex and the brightness increased, with more and more forms flowing out from inside.

The Doctor looked at Missy and back to Doctor Smith. “You’re not my replica…” The Doctor hissed, “I don’t do such thing!”

“You’re right, I ‘m not, Doctor.” Doctor Smith laughed, “We are from another planet.”

“Who are you?”

“Shapeshifter, and today is the day we will triumph over humanity.” Doctor Smith laughed again as the floating forms were now flowing out of the windows towards each direction, even before they assume a human form.

“Why are you doing this?”

“Humans are an ungrateful bunch of species, Doctor. They have a lovely planet, but they did not use it wisely. We, however, had achieved a highly evolved life form, and yet suffered a barren land. We need the Earth, for our species.”

At this, Missy was awaken enough to stand on her feet. She looked at Smith, crossed.

“There you are, still alive to watch this happen,” Doctor Smith said, “I’m sorry I didn’t manage to convert you… I told you it would be painless. Let us take your place, and you will be free from your body and your conscious will be lurking anywhere you want it t be. Free, totally free.”

“Free MY ASS!” Missy huffed. She was clearly not fully recovered and The Doctor intuitively hold her back as she stood.

“Doctor,” Missy said, “this creature was using the bigger-on-the-inside technology of my TARDIS, to transport his friends over here…”

“Thanks to Missy,” Doctor Smith smiled eerily, bowing to Missy, “her technology was a great help...you see, Doctor, Missy visited my planet at the right time. She needed you, you weren’t there; I was there, and I immediately saw the opportunity.”

“You said you were an outcast, that’s why I agreed to bring you along!” Missy fought back.

“Your love for the Doctor, is your weakness, Missy, admit it.” Doctor Smith smirked, “And now it’s too late. I could have kill both of you to save you from the pain, but it seemed The Doctor preferred the suffering.”

The Doctor was fuming, he was.

“YOU-ARE-WRONG, young man!” The Doctor raged, “her love for The Doctor, is not a weakness, is not a mistake. It is something between Missy and me. But today - tell you what - you are very very very wrong! Her love for the Doctor, is exactly why your plan is flawed!”

Doctor Smith looked puzzled.

“Ahah! Love is blind, Smith. She fed her thought into you, to create the perfect Doctor she thought would be what she liked. The fact is, I am not a perfect Doctor. I am flawed, I am broken - and she loved me too much, as a friend, as a partner, as a comrade, to feed you the darkest secret of mine. And hence, you can’t think like I do. You are WAY too soft to be me, Smith. And and because Missy’s connection with me - “ The Doctor looked at Missy who was just beside him, now looking at him admiringly. “- she summoned me.”

The Doctor’s eye twinkled, “ and by that, she summoned the TARDIS! Another strong space-time bender!”

The Doctor raised his hand and clicked his fingers.

The whirl of wind came and passed and the vrowp vrowp sound was heard. The beautiful blue machine materialized and started rumbling.

“What’s happening?” Doctor Smith panicked.

“You opened a portal to come from your world; I opened mine. Two bent space-time fabric, I’m inviting you to eternity, and rejection is not allowed.” The Doctor laughed with his eyes looking at Doctor Smith with anger.

For that moment, the whole room seemed stopped and everything was going in reverse. Another vortex was charged through the TARDIS, linking between the blue machine and the wardrobe. “You kept it in there, did you?” The Doctor asked Missy softly.

Missy nodded…

And the forms fall through the newly-formed vortex, even those that went out of the house, were pulled back by the force.

“YOU - “ Doctor Smith, on the other hand, barely had enough chance to say a word before he himself dropped through the swirling cloud and it closed itself.

What was left, was a messy room, a TARDIS and two Time Lords who unknowingly hold their hands together, one leaning against each other, supporting each other...


	5. The storm after the calmness of the sea

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Stubborn time lords

The Doctor watched as the chaos came to an end, or rather, a temporary calmness.

Right when the calmness was starting to sink in, Missy, who was just inches away from him, or - him, inches away from her; stole a peck on his cheek and giggled. Blood gushed to his head immediately, leaving him looking at Missy’s delighted face and stoned.

“I didn’t summon you,” Missy chuckled, “you miss me?”

“The Doctor lies,” The Doctor spat as both of them sprang away from each other, about to engage into a word battle.

“So you did miss me.”

“I -, no!”

“Pity, I was counting on that,” Missy purred as she thread across the room and walked into a wardrobe. The Doctor followed to keep up with the conversation.

“Counting on me?”

“Well, I did try to send a signal to the TARDIS, and I don’t think she ever likes me,” Missy explained from behind the doors, “so I thought if you miss me, you would…”

Missy reappeared, now in her purple Marry Poppin outfit and hair pinned up. The Doctor looked curiously at her.

“- that you would be care enough to help.” Missy said with a low voice as she lowered her gaze at the floor, a slight tinge of pink obvious around her face. For a moment, The Doctor was awe-struck by Missy’s other side but Missy continued, “Visual projection.” She pat some dust off her shoulder, “I could be not wearing anything at the moment, Doctor.”

“I have no interest whatsoever on whether you are wrapping yourself with fabric or some virtual projection, Missy,” The Doctor hissed, “I would, however, like to have a word about Smith.”

“Him?” Missy.

“Yes, Smith! If it wasn’t you who was recruiting some random monsters around the universe, the shapeshifters wouldn’t be taking the advantage.”

Missy looked away from him, “Well, as I said, he lied to me. I thought - I found out about it on the way to another planet so I decided to stop him at Earth. Honey, I did try - but it was too late when he stole my TARDIS technology.” Missy looked at The Doctor. She had not admit her mistake that easily usually, but she really hope this would make up, at least, this one time…

“See!” The Doctor raised his voice, “See what you’ve done?! Don’t try to get sympathy from me, Missy, you screwed up big time! I helped today - not because of you or anything between us - it is because The Earth needs help, and I am The Doctor!”

Missy looked at The Doctor silently. Her hearts were heavy and broken, yet at the same time fluttering at seeing The Doctor, her Doctor, being himself. But she should not show her weakness anymore. It was always better to hide herself anyway. In a split second, Missy returned to her stone cold face, “Great speech, Doctor, guess I will have to find another way to destroy the universe then.”

The Doctor was obviously not satisfied with her response, by brushing all her responsibility away like a fact. He stood in the middle of the room, fuming, as he watch Missy walked with ultimate confidence out of the room.

“COME BACK HERE, MISSY! I am not done with the talking!” The Doctor yelled, “I’m tired of clearing your mess every single time and you - walking off just like that!”

Missy turned right at the exit of the house, “If this make you feel any better, Doctor, I am sorry.” She spat and walked out of the house.

*****************************************************************************************************

Missy left the place she had been staying like a mortal for months, waiting for The Doctor. All she had now, was herself, which was even disintegrating within her.

_My hearts, be strong…_

She drew in deep breaths.

_If Daleks could turn good because of malfunction, then why couldn’t I?_

Missy choked at her own thoughts. She continued to walk without any destination in mind.

Sudden flux of emotions flowed into her mind as she remembered how they met, they played, they became close and drifted apart and now…

 _History is a burden_ , Missy thought.

And she reckoned, all these - all these was due to her fear of losing the Doctor, because The Doctor had been a big part of her life. And she tried to hide her fear, because she feared her fear would drive The Doctor away.

_You are always gonna be afraid even if you learn to hide it._

Missy then chuckled at the thought, the funny thing is, it was exactly a person like The Doctor, who pushed her over the edge to be stronger.

_You make me your friend when that is your mood to but what else, Doctor? I'm not a passenger in your life. I’m your friend._

_And you decided that you’re determined to play your part, kill a monster like me. Did you know how painful was that? All that I could hear from you about me, was disappointment. If only you could remember the good ones and forget the bad ones, Doctor. If only your acquaitance with the humans, would make you a bit more - human - forgetful…_

_My hearts are maintained by you_ … Missy found herself in a dark alley, alone, and she sat down at a backdoor steps. She was too fragile to even stand and think of all these… She just wanted her friend back...


End file.
